Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  Thomas Hardy - Christmas Carollings

  Andrew Norman

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  A tradition at Christmas was for the choir of local musicians and singers to assemble at the Hardys’ cottage, prior to setting out into the snow to do the rounds of local farms, homesteads, and manor house, in order to entertain their occupants. Hardy recreated this magical scene in Under the Greenwood Tree, published in 1872. 
  In the days when labouring classes worked long hours, and for the majority, material comforts were small, Christmas was a time (aside from the formalities of necessary religious observance,) for the exchanging of news, folklore, legend and jokes. For those fortunate enough to be invited to the Hardys’ cottage on Christmas Eve, there was the added bonus of food and drink to feed the body, and music – home-made of course – to lift the spirits and nourish the soul.  
  Hardy’s descriptions of such Christmases, as were celebrated by himself and his family, together with his colourful portrayals of characters – in particular the members of the ‘Mellstock Quire’ (Choir,) whom he described as his favourites - have delighted generations of his readers, and continue to do so.  
  This then, is the story of Thomas Hardy and of Christmas; of what that greatest of all Christian festivals meant to him, and of how his beliefs changed as the years progressed.

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  Nefarious: A life in crime – my...

  Ronnie Field, Martin Knight

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  A Daily Mail Book of the Week 
  Prolific armed robber. Close ally of Joey Pyle. Friend and fellow inmate of the Kray twins. Last man to stand trial with a Kray brother. First prisoner in the notorious Belmarsh Unit … Welcome to Ronnie Field's world. 
  From his abusive childhood, his inevitable journey into crime and his role in the dangerous underworld of south London’s gangland through to his eventful spells in many of Britain’s most secure jails, Ronnie Field is ready to recount his incredible story for the very first time. It’s a new take on the criminal fraternity of the 1970s and 80s from one of the last men standing. 
  A raw, honest and sometimes humorous portrayal of a life in the fast lane of organised crime, Nefarious is a reflection on a bygone era from which there are few regrets. Though some things are best laid to rest… 
  There was a code. It's not there now. The public weren't in general danger from us. Most of our lot never burgled anybody's gaff. None of our lot every mugged people. We didn't hit women. Most of us didn't take drugs. We dressed well. Wouldn't be seen dead in tracksuit or shell suit. We were polite around women. Although our business was misbehavior, we knew how to behave.  
  In Nefarious, Ronnie Field's autobiography, he delves into the historical and organised crimes of the 70s and 80s, painting a vivid picture of the non-fictional underworld. His memoirs are filled with tales of robberies, heists, and outlaws, all wrapped in a narrative that is as engaging as it is enlightening. 
  nan 
  HarperCollins 2024

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  Little Vic and the Great Mafia War

  Larry McShane

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  June 20, 1991. A five-man hit team waited in a car outside the Long Island home of Victor Orena, the acting crime boss of the Colombo crime family. Orena recognized the vehicle—and managed to escape with his life. Over the next year, more shots would be fired in what would become the last major mob war in New York's crime-soaked history—and one of the bloodiest. The war ended with Orena's 1992 arrest and conviction for racketeering. 
   
   
   
  With shocking new revelations from Orena's son Andrew, this eye-opening account takes listeners inside the criminal underworld of New York's infamous "Five Families" from the point of view of one of its rising stars. The grandson of Sicilian immigrants, Victor Orena ingratiated himself with the local Mafiosi during his teens. Ascending the ranks, he eventually became acting boss of the family when its don Carmine "The Snake" Persico was sentenced to prison. But as Persico struggled to maintain control from behind bars, Orena decided to seize that power for himself—launching a ruthless mob war the city would never forget. 
   
   
   
  Featuring a rogues gallery of legendary mobsters—from the Gallo brothers to the Gambinos and John Gotti—this riveting account sheds new light on one of the most fascinating chapters in American crime.

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  The Young Man

  Annie Ernaux

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  This is Annie Ernaux’s account of her passionate love affair with A., a man some thirty years younger, when she was in her fifties. The relationship pulls her back to memories of her own youth and, at the same time, leaves her feeling ageless, outside of time—together with a sense that she is living her life backwards. Amidst talk of having a child together, she feels time running its course and menopause approaching. The Young Man recalls Ernaux as the “scandalous girl” she once was but is composed with the mastery and the self-assurance she has achieved across decades of writing.

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  The Last Bookseller - A Life in...

  Gary Goodman

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  When Gary Goodman wandered into a run-down, used-book shop that was going out of business in East St. Paul in 1982, he had no idea the visit would change his life. He walked in as a psychiatric counselor and walked out as the store's new owner. In The Last Bookseller Goodman describes his sometimes desperate, sometimes hilarious career as a used and rare book dealer in Minnesota. 
   
    
   
  Here we meet the infamous St. Paul Book Bandit, Stephen Blumberg, who stole 24,000 rare books worth more than fifty million dollars; John Jenkins, the Texas rare book dealer who (probably) was murdered while standing in the middle of the Colorado River; and the eccentric Melvin McCosh, who filled his dilapidated mansion with half a million books. In 1990, with a couple of partners, Goodman opened St. Croix Antiquarian Books in Stillwater, one of the Twin Cities region's most venerable bookshops until it closed in 2017. 
   
   
   
  The internet changed the book business forever, and Goodman details how, after 2000, the internet made stores like his obsolete. In the 1990s, the Twin Cities had nearly fifty secondhand bookshops; today, there are fewer than ten. As both a memoir and a history of booksellers and book scouts, criminals and collectors, The Last Bookseller offers an ultimately poignant account of the used and rare book business during its final Golden Age.

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  The California Days of Ralph...

  Brian C. Wilson

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  In the spring of 1871, Ralph Waldo Emerson boarded a train in Concord, Massachusetts, bound for a month-and-a-half-long tour of California—an interlude that became one of the highlights of his life. On their journey across the American West, he and his companions would take in breathtaking vistas in the Rockies and along the Pacific Coast, speak with a young John Muir in the Yosemite Valley, stop off in Salt Lake City for a meeting with Brigham Young, and encounter a diversity of communities and cultures that would challenge their Yankee prejudices. 
   
   
   
  Based on original research employing newly discovered documents, The California Days of Ralph Waldo Emerson maps the public story of this group's travels onto the private story of Emerson's final years, as aphasia set in and increasingly robbed him of his words. Engaging and compelling, this travelogue makes it clear that Emerson was still capable of wonder, surprise, and friendship, debunking the presumed darkness of his last decade.

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